COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATuRDAY, JunE 25, 2022
Live-in boyfriend shames woman for being a mother
This has caused some tension
with my boyfriend. He feels we
never get “alone time” anymore.
He then withholds affection from
me, as if I’ve done something
wrong by having my kids. Since
he moved in, our sex life has
dwindled to almost nonexistent.
He refuses to be intimate when
the kids are home, yet he hasn’t
made the most of the “alone
time” we do have when the kids
aren’t here. He usually goes to
bed early, without so much as a
goodnight kiss. Or he’ll go out
on weekend days and not include
me.
I have been cheated on in the
past, and my insecurities are
starting to rear their ugly heads.
I don’t know how to talk to him
DEAR ABBY: I am a
divorced mother of two teen-
agers. I’ve been seeing my boy-
friend, “Sean,” for almost five
years, and when the pandemic
started, he moved in with us. I
am supposed to share custody of
my teens with their father, alter-
nating weeks. However, his job
requires travel, and the kids are
with me more often than not,
with little to no notice. They are
also reaching an age where they
don’t really want to go to their
dad’s all the time.
you. This does not bode well for a
healthy future.
His defensiveness when you
attempt to have an adult discussion
with him isn’t your real problem.
Getting him out of your home
and your life before he wastes any
more of your time is what you
should focus on.
DEAR ABBY: What is proper
etiquette when attending an event
and sitting at a table with more
than six people? I think it’s rude
to talk to a person across the table.
Talking to a person next to you is
acceptable. Talking to someone
across the table is rude because
the other diners must stop talking
to the person seated next to them
and be forced to listen to your
conversation. Seeing this happen
because he gets defensive and gas-
lights any issues I bring up. I don’t
feel safe sharing my hurt with
him, let alone sharing my anger
at him for trying to make me feel
bad for being a mom. I’m losing
hope and feel myself shutting
down. How can I approach him
in a way that he won’t get defen-
sive? — FIGHTING A LOSING
BATTLE
DEAR FIGHTING: There are
red flags all over your letter. You
are going to be an active mother
until your children are at least 18.
That this man would move into
your home and give you heartburn
about your responsibilities is ter-
rible. You state that your sex life
is over, and when you raise other
important issues, he gaslights
is becoming more and more
annoying. What do you think? —
FORCED TO LISTEN
DEAR FORCED: While that
rule of etiquette may have been
true in Edwardian times, table
etiquette today is no longer so
rigid. While, of course, it is desir-
able to converse with the guests
seated next to you, unless com-
municating with someone across
the table requires one to shout —
which would be distracting and
disruptive — I see nothing rude
about it.
█
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren,
also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was
founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips.
Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com
or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Cambodian catches world’s largest recorded freshwater fish
By JERRY HARMER
The Associated Press
BANGKOK — The world’s
largest recorded freshwater fish, a
giant stingray, has been caught in
the Mekong River in Cambodia,
according to scientists from the
Southeast Asian nation and the
United States.
The stingray, captured on June
13, measured almost 13 feet from
snout to tail and weighed slightly
under 660 pounds, according to
a statement Monday by Wonders
of the Mekong, a joint Cambodi-
an-U.S. research project.
The previous record for a
freshwater fish was a 646-pound
Mekong giant catfish, discovered in
Thailand in 2005, the group said.
The stingray was snagged by
a local fisherman south of Stung
Treng in northeastern Cambodia.
The fisherman alerted a nearby
team of scientists from the Wonders
of the Mekong project, which has
publicized its conservation work in
communities along the river.
The scientists arrived within
hours of getting a post-mid-
night call with the news, and were
amazed at what they saw.
“Yeah, when you see a fish this
size, especially in freshwater, it is
hard to comprehend, so I think all
of our team was stunned,” Wonders
of the Mekong leader Zeb Hogan
said in an online interview from the
University of Nevada in Reno. The
university is partnering with the
Cambodian Fisheries Administra-
tion and USAID, the U.S. govern-
ment’s international development
agency.
Freshwater fish are defined as
those that spend their entire lives
in freshwater, as opposed to giant
marine species such as bluefin tuna
and marlin, or fish that migrate
between fresh and saltwater like the
huge beluga sturgeon.
The stingray’s catch was not just
about setting a new record, he said.
Chhut Chheana/Wonders of the Mekong
In this photo provided by Wonders of the Mekong taken on June 14, 2022, a man touches a giant freshwater stingray before being released back into the Mekong River in
the northeastern province of Stung Treng, Cambodia. A local fisherman caught the 661-pound stingray, which set the record for the world’s largest known freshwater fish
and earned him a $600 reward.
“The fact that the fish can still
get this big is a hopeful sign for the
Mekong River,” Hogan said, noting
that the waterway faces many envi-
ronmental challenges.
The Mekong River runs
through China, Myanmar, Laos,
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
It is home to several species of
giant freshwater fish but environ-
mental pressures are rising. In par-
ticular, scientists fear a major pro-
gram of dam building in recent
years may be seriously disrupting
spawning grounds.
“Big fish globally are endan-
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
the tail of the mighty fish before
releasing it. The device will send
tracking information for the next
year, providing unprecedented
data on giant stingray behavior in
Cambodia.
“The giant stingray is a very
poorly understood fish. Its name,
even its scientific name, has
changed several times in the last
20 years,” Hogan said. “It’s found
throughout Southeast Asia, but we
have almost no information about it.
We don’t know about its life history.
We don’t know about its ecology,
about its migration patters.”
gered. They’re high-value species.
They take a long time to mature.
So if they’re fished before they
mature, they don’t have a chance
to reproduce,” Hogan said. “A lot
of these big fish are migratory, so
they need large areas to survive.
They’re impacted by things like
habitat fragmentation from dams,
obviously impacted by overfishing.
So about 70% of giant freshwater
fish globally are threatened with
extinction, and all of the Mekong
species.”
The team that rushed to the
site inserted a tagging device near
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
61/86
Kennewick
58/93
St. Helens
67/97
64/95
67/96
Condon
62/100
67/98
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Clear
Plenty of
sunshine
Mostly sunny
and hot
Sunny and nice
Partly sunny and
pleasant
94 57
83 48
77 47
Eugene
3
8
9
57/93
92 60
82 50
77 53
4
8
9
La Grande
52 86 55
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
5
9
5
50 86 55
Comfort Index™
9
78 47
74 52
3
10
10
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 112°
Low: 26°
Wettest: 1.35”
75°
44°
76°
50°
80°
48°
Thursday
Trace
Month to date
0.48
Normal month to date 0.90
Year to date
4.46
Normal year to date
5.24
0.00
2.40
1.14
8.76
9.83
0.00
3.27
1.50
17.44
14.18
PRECIPITATION (inches)
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
30%
SE at 4 to 8 mph
14.7
0.28
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
26% of capacity
94% of capacity
41% of capacity
100% of capacity
37% of capacity
101% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
7950 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 214 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
73 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
84 cfs
Minam River at Minam
2140 cfs
Powder River near Richland
162 cfs
Ocotillo Wells, Calif.
Bodie State Park, Calif.
Plattsburgh, N.Y.
OREGON
High: 92°
Low: 39°
Wettest: Trace
Ontario
Tillamook
Brookings
WEATHER HISTORY
On June 25, 1988, extreme heat baked the
Ohio Valley and lower Great Lakes region.
Cleveland, Ohio, hit 104 degrees, and Ft.
Wayne, Ind., rose to 106 -- both record
high temperatures for these cities.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
5:05 a.m.
8:45 p.m.
2:42 a.m.
6:02 p.m.
SUN.
5:06 a.m.
8:45 p.m.
3:09 a.m.
7:06 p.m.
MOON PHASES
New
Jun 28
First
Jul 6
Full
Jul 13
Beaver Marsh
63/91
Last
Jul 20
63/99
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
51/90
Paisley
50/94
50/93
Frenchglen
54/91
65/104
Klamath Falls
51/95
50/96
Lakeview
51/92
McDermitt
52/92
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
City
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
Astoria
86/59/s 71/57/pc
Bend
95/63/s 99/59/s
Boise
95/66/s 101/67/s
Brookings
68/54/c 67/52/pc
Burns
92/56/s 98/54/s
Coos Bay
77/53/pc 72/51/pc
Corvallis
93/58/s 88/54/s
Council
88/55/s 98/62/s
Elgin
86/58/s 92/58/s
Eugene
93/60/s 89/54/s
Hermiston
98/61/s 103/71/s
Hood River
95/65/s 99/60/s
Imnaha
90/61/s 99/65/s
John Day
93/58/s 100/59/s
Joseph
86/63/s 93/58/pc
Kennewick
98/62/s 104/69/s
Klamath Falls 95/53/s 93/47/s
Lakeview
92/52/s 93/48/s
Grand View
Arock
50/93
53/92
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
Diamond
53/92
Fields
Medford
Brookings
Boise
58/95
62/105
56/68
52/94
45/94
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Juntura
49/92
52/93
46/94
Ontario
54/96
Burns
Brothers
68/98
Roseburg
Huntington
51/90
Bend
Coos Bay
52/88
57/93
Seneca
55/95
Oakridge
Council
44/88
52/93
55/93
Elkton
THURSDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
50/85
John Day
52/94
Sisters
Florence
Powers
51/91
Baker City
Redmond
57/72
59/74
Halfway
Granite
59/93
Newport
56/77
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
55/96
63/95
61/95
61/94
92 60
4
Corvallis
Enterprise
50/86
52/86
Monument
62/93
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
9
Elgin
50/86
La Grande
60/88
Maupin
Comfort Index™
57/89
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
57/89
Hood River
58/92
TIllamook
44 88 53
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
60/98
Vancouver
65/97
65/89
Baker City
Researchers say it’s the fourth
giant stingray reported in the same
area in the past two months, all
of them females. They think this
may be a spawning hotspot for the
species.
Local residents nicknamed
the stingray “Boramy,” or “full
moon,” because of its round shape
and because the moon was on
the horizon when it was freed on
June 14. In addition to the honor of
having caught the record-breaker,
the lucky fisherman was compen-
sated at market rate, meaning he
received a payment of around $600.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
Hi/Lo/W
89/60/s
93/60/s
85/54/s
104/66/s
72/54/s
91/59/s
96/60/s
96/63/s
92/64/s
98/67/s
91/60/s
94/58/s
99/64/s
95/64/s
85/57/s
100/67/s
89/56/s
89/64/s
Hi/Lo/W
94/65/s
89/57/s
92/57/s
97/57/s
64/53/pc
89/55/s
104/66/s
103/69/s
99/68/s
91/59/s
86/53/pc
98/54/s
92/56/s
91/56/s
90/60/s
103/66/s
92/54/s
96/67/s
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Mostly sunny
Sunny and warm
67
55
86
57
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Sunny and pleasant
Mostly sunny; warm
74
57
92
61
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Sunny and warm
Sunny and warm
74
53
82
50
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Sunny and warm
Plenty of sunshine
86
63
90
64
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Sunshine
Plenty of sunshine
88
53
86
55